Kejriwal gets EC notice for rock show expenses

The Delhi electoral office has sent a show-cause notice to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal for exceeding the cap on election expenditure, highly placed sources said.

Kejriwal, who is contesting from the New Delhi constituency, allegedly overshot the Rs. 14 lakh expenditure cap for an individual contesting the polls. “The notice was sent for not showing the cost of holding a music concert in his constituency,” said a senior official. The notice says Rs. 22 lakh were spent on the concert.

AAP, however, said the concert’s expenditure was negligible and should be added to the party’s account and not a candidate’s expenditure.

AAP organized a concert called Rock the Ballot on November 23 at the Jantar Mantar, which saw a number of artists participate, including Vishal Dadlani and Rabbi Shergil, and was attended by over 1200 people.

“The rock concert didn’t cost us Rs. 22 lakh. They were AAP supporters and did it for free,” said Pankaj Gupta, AAP national secretary.

Delhi’s chief electoral officer Vijay Dev said he wasn’t aware of the notice as it is generally sent by the returning officer of the constituency, New Delhi in this case. The returning officer refused to comment when contacted.